Types of Food to Avoid When Aiming for Toned Abs

Food to Avoids When Aiming for Toned Abs!

Soda

Soda is bad for you even if it is diet soda.

A study at the University of Texas showed that those who take diet soda had a 41% risk of being overweight.

One reason for this is that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas create a negative hormonal response in the body that shoots up the fat storing hormone production and increases your cravings for more sweets and refined carbohydrates in the time period after consuming the diet drink.

In other words, they reduced the taste of the soda but they didn’t reduce the effect it has on your body.

So, your body thinks that just because it’s consuming diet soda that there is leeway to eat more of everything else.

When you take soda with artificial sweeteners, your taste buds “sense” that you ingested something very sweet, and even though you might not have ingested sugar, your body follows with an insulin response that leads to more cravings.

The body responds as follows – higher insulin levels leading to an increase in cravings as well which triggers your body to deposit body fat.

This is not to say it’s any better to drink a sugar-sweetened soda which has its own host of problems.

This is why Healthy Top 10 recommends substituting your soda for plain or greek yogurt.

Yogurts contain probiotic bacteria that keep the digestive system intact leading to lower incidence of gas, constipation and bloating.

French fries and potato chips

When it comes to eating right for a good diet for six pack abs, you need to stay away from fries and chips.

Yes, we know, they say that everything’s fine in moderation.

But trust us, this doesn’t apply to the fries Not only are these snacks made of nothing but starch and usually have chemical preservatives, but they are also marinated in trans fat oil.

Stay away!

If you must consume french fries, make them yourself at home from fresh potatoes and bake them in the oven.

White bread and other flour-based products.

There is a reason diabetics are not supposed to eat white bread.

White flour has absolutely nothing in the way of nutritional value to the body.

It causes more harm than good.

Got that?

Nothing.

However, it is converted by the body to sugar when it hits the bloodstream, which means that you are just about as well off eating a cupcake as you are to eat a sandwich on white bread.

It is nutritionally bankrupt and makes you fat, period.

Stay away from white flour products and white rice. Instead, you should swap your white bread and rice for whole grains (wheat bread) and brown rice as these leads to a trimming of the extra fat from the waistline.

Bad Fast Food

Most fast foods contain a lot of Trans Fats – that’s what they are made of.

You know that those fats that have no essential purpose other than to lower your good cholesterol and increase your bad cholesterol.

In other words, the only thing these kinds of foods is good for is giving you a heart attack!

There is no reason why you should continue to consume them.

Let’s not forget that it will only take you away from your goal of having ripped abs.

Salty Foods

When you eat a lot of salty foods like sushi, your body responds by holding onto water.

Although this is an effort to maintain the delicate electrolyte balance in the body, it leads to edema or swelling.

This swelling manifests as bloat that can cover up your abs and leads to a belly.

Over time, regularly eating too much salt can also lead to increased blood volume and high blood pressure.

If you can’t help but consume a lot of sodium, you can learn how to drink more water to reduce the bloat that covers your abs by drinking a minimum of 8-ounces of water every day.

This has to be pure water, not mineral water or vitamin water.

Stay away from the caffeinated beverages that promote dehydration.

Commercially Produced Peanut Butter

Peanut butter gets a special mention right here because even though it is high in protein, it is also high in saturated fat which is way bad for you.

There is no arguing that peanut butter has some health benefits.

It is high in protein, vitamins B3 and E, magnesium, folate, arginine, and certain antioxidants.

That said, there are many foods that contain all of those beneficial nutrients without all of the drawbacks that peanut butter brings.

You can go for those rather than going for peanut butter.

The biggest problem with peanut butter is that it is exceptionally high in fat.

In fact, about 15% of the calories in peanuts are from saturated fat and 35% of calories are from unsaturated fat.

Fat is why peanut butter tastes so darn good, but also why it is so unhealthy.

Not all peanut butter is created equal either.

According to the NIH, peanut butter made with “natural” palm oil can raise levels of bad cholesterol way higher than most people think.

So, even peanut butter branded as “natural” is not beneficial for your health.

Processed Foods

Of recent times, the nutritionist has realized that certain foods increase the glycemic index compared with others.

When we speak of the glycemic index, we are simply talking about a way of measuring the foods that can be easily digested.

The higher this index is for a food, the easier the food can be digested and the more calories.

Some foods have a high glycemic index like processed carbohydrates that adds more weight gain and increase the likelihood of getting heart disease.

While foods with low glycemic index foods tend to contribute less to weight gain and reduce the incidence of heart disease.

Alcohol

Similar to sweets, alcoholic beverages contain a huge amount of carbohydrates that it deposits into the body without a commensurate nutrient following it.

While taking moderate amount can bring health benefits to the body, consuming a lot can adhere your nutritional plan and make it harder for all the efforts you put into your body in the gym to bear fruit.

Sweets

These include candy, crackers, and even cookies.

They are simply a huge chunk of carbohydrates especially sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

An excessive amount of these things can provide your body with the excessive amount of calories that will be stored in your abdominal areas as fats which reduces the possibility of achieving the six packs that you have been working so hard on.